In spite of advances in pain assessment and pharmacological management, hospitalized children continue to report significant levels of pain intensity. Untreated pain may delay recovery, exacerbate injury, prevent healing, prolong hospitalization, and even lead to death. Prior research has demonstrated that nurses administered amounts of analgesia that were less than amounts recommended by standards and less than amounts available by physician order. The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine pediatric nurses' cognitive representations (CR) of children's pain and pain management to better understand how 20 registered nurses think about and respond to a child's pain. Kaplan's theory of cognitive representation guided the research project. Nurses' CRs of children's pain and pain management were measured with Kearney and Kaplan's Conceptual Cognitive Map (3CM) open-ended technique. This mapping method identifies the most salient features of the nurses' knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions and provides a visual display of how this knowledge is organized and conceptualized. Nurses were also asked to provide their responses to two case studies about assessment and analgesia administration. Descriptive and content analyses revealed that nurses have rich and diverse CRs of children's pain and pain management. Content items in nurses' maps were coded as belonging to an assessment or management domain. Items were further coded into 1 of 14 subgroups in each domain. For assessment, the subgroup of family involvement was identified by 85% of nurses followed by observation of behavioral manifestations (80%), but only 60% identified the child's self-report of pain. In regard to the management subgroups, 25% of nurses did not identify pharmacological approaches while 40% did not identify nonpharmacological ones. Family involvement in management was identified by only 15% of nurses. Indicators in nurses' cognitive maps suggest there may be a relationship between nurses' CRs and choice of analgesic administration.

Full metadata record

DC Field

Value

Language

dc.type

Presentation

en_GB

dc.title

Nurses' Cognitive Representations of Children's Pain

en_GB

dc.identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10755/159858

-

dc.description.abstract

<table><tr><td colspan="2" class="item-title">Nurses' Cognitive Representations of Children's Pain</td></tr><tr class="item-sponsor"><td class="label">Conference Sponsor:</td><td class="value">Midwest Nursing Research Society</td></tr><tr class="item-year"><td class="label">Conference Year:</td><td class="value">2006</td></tr><tr class="item-author"><td class="label">Author:</td><td class="value">Vincent, Catherine, RN, PhD</td></tr><tr class="item-institute"><td class="label">P.I. Institution Name:</td><td class="value">University of Illinois at Chicago</td></tr><tr class="item-author-title"><td class="label">Title:</td><td class="value">Assistant Professor</td></tr><tr class="item-address"><td class="label">Contact Address:</td><td class="value">College of Nursing, 845 S Damen Ave, Chicago, IL, 60612-7350, USA</td></tr><tr class="item-phone"><td class="label">Contact Telephone:</td><td class="value">312-355-3283</td></tr><tr class="item-email"><td class="label">Email:</td><td class="value">vincentc@uic.edu</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="item-abstract">In spite of advances in pain assessment and pharmacological management, hospitalized children continue to report significant levels of pain intensity. Untreated pain may delay recovery, exacerbate injury, prevent healing, prolong hospitalization, and even lead to death. Prior research has demonstrated that nurses administered amounts of analgesia that were less than amounts recommended by standards and less than amounts available by physician order. The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine pediatric nurses' cognitive representations (CR) of children's pain and pain management to better understand how 20 registered nurses think about and respond to a child's pain. Kaplan's theory of cognitive representation guided the research project. Nurses' CRs of children's pain and pain management were measured with Kearney and Kaplan's Conceptual Cognitive Map (3CM) open-ended technique. This mapping method identifies the most salient features of the nurses' knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions and provides a visual display of how this knowledge is organized and conceptualized. Nurses were also asked to provide their responses to two case studies about assessment and analgesia administration. Descriptive and content analyses revealed that nurses have rich and diverse CRs of children's pain and pain management. Content items in nurses' maps were coded as belonging to an assessment or management domain. Items were further coded into 1 of 14 subgroups in each domain. For assessment, the subgroup of family involvement was identified by 85% of nurses followed by observation of behavioral manifestations (80%), but only 60% identified the child's self-report of pain. In regard to the management subgroups, 25% of nurses did not identify pharmacological approaches while 40% did not identify nonpharmacological ones. Family involvement in management was identified by only 15% of nurses. Indicators in nurses' cognitive maps suggest there may be a relationship between nurses' CRs and choice of analgesic administration.</td></tr></table>

en_GB

dc.date.available

2011-10-26T22:24:01Z

-

dc.date.issued

2011-10-17

en_GB

dc.date.accessioned

2011-10-26T22:24:01Z

-

dc.description.sponsorship

Midwest Nursing Research Society

en_GB

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